Boehner tends to his flock

August 3, 2007

Brad Plumer said something interesting today that caught my eye: “[House Minority Leader] John Boehner seems to be surprisingly adept at keeping his caucus in line these days.” Plumer was talking about the House GOP voting together on S-CHIP expansion, but it got me thinking: the Republicans have been surprisingly united lately, haven’t they?

* On offering more healthcare to children, only five out of 202 House Republicans voted for the legislation.

* On mandating rest times for U.S. troops equal to their deployment times, only six out of 202 House Republicans voted for the legislation.

* On the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would extended the period in which workers can file pay-discrimination claims, only two out of 202 House Republicans voted for the legislation.

These weren’t particularly contentious bills. Indeed, it was easy to imagine these three votes, all within the last few days, passing with overwhelming, bipartisan support. Who wants to take a firm stand against children’s health, troop R&R, and discriminatory pay for workers? Apparently, 99% of the House Republican caucus does.

In the broader political context, all available evidence suggests the Republican Party in Washington is in freefall. They have weak leadership, no policy agenda, faltering public support, minimal prospects for the future, and if the polls are right, they’re on the wrong side of practically every policy debate. Worse yet, they’re burdened by new and expanding scandals, and a woefully unpopular president. All of this, just nine months after the GOP lost both chambers of Congress in a historic rebuke.

House Republicans have decided to respond to this dynamic by … voting in lock step? United in their opposition to popular legislation? A certain electoral panic should be setting in right about now, but instead, they’re acting like sheep.

I suppose Boehner is to be congratulated for his ability to keep a cohesive caucus, but I can’t help but notice the Minority Leader is leading his members right off a cliff.

Post Script: Some of you are no doubt curious about which Republicans have been willing to break ranks this week on the three bills listed above. Here’s the list:

* On kids’ healthcare: Capito, Ferguson, LaHood, LoBiondo, Shays

* On rest for the troops: Castle, Gilchrest, Jones (NC), Paul, Shays, Walsh (NY)

* On Ledbetter: Shays, Young (AK)

I keep expecting the GOP caucus to splinter one of these days, but they’re not showing any signs of schism now.

Sssssh! Let ’em go!

  • This should make it easy for us to recruit good candidates against even some entrenched Rethug incumbents. The mailers and TV ads write themselves.

    In the spirit of being a good sport and not shooting fish in a barrel, let me give this brief advice to my Republican friends in light of the three bills Steve identifies above:

    1) More voters are wage-earning workers than are corporate execs;

    2) More voters have children they care about than are HMO/Pharma execs;

    3) More voters are troops or their family members, friends and employers than are foaming-at-the-mouth neocons.

  • Maybe we should just call them the stoopids?

    There is plenty here the Dems need to take advantage of if they are not stoopid too. But, broken record time, they need to develop a strategy that forces this into the msm on a continuous basis – or the stoopids will pay no political price.

  • This might actually be a sensible strategy for them. Hear me out on this. In the late 70s, angry liberal Democrats desrted Jimmy Carter, a determined moderate, in droves, especially when his popularity went into freefall. Did it help? Not in the least – Dems lost the presidency and the Senate in 1980 and, despite some comebacks, have been looked at as weak and disorganized ever since.

    Moderate Repubs may be thinking this way: if they turn against the conservatives, their party (them included) looks weak and divided, and it’s unclear if voters will give them any credit anyway (why not vote for a “real” Democrat?). If they stick together, at least there’s a chance that the pendulum will swing in a few years (as it always does) and public opinion will be ready again to vote Republican. Hey, people have short memories.

    So in strategic terms staying united now makes the chance of a comeback at some pont that much more achievable. But turning agaist your party creates an image of strife and disunity that can stick for generations, at least to a media obsessed with tactics, image and power.

    What’s that you say? That this means screwing over children, the troops, and working women? Hey, remember, these are Republicans.

  • Chuck Noll, the great Steelers coach, had a stock answer everytime he took his teams into the playoffs and faced the inevitable questions about personnel, strategy, etc. He’d say, ” You dance with who brought you.”

    Voting lockstep is what got the GOP into and then back out of a majority. It got them a majority when it had an implication of organisation. It got them out when it appeared to be thoughtless, well, locksteppery. It’s all they know. It’s what got them where they are, so that’s who they’re dancing with.

    They do appear to be dancing straight off the cliff. I hope the band plays all night.

  • Boehner also held the caucus in check for the Food and Farm Bill that passed last Friday 231 – 191. Only nineteen Republicans voted in favor of the bill, meaning that most of the Reps from the so-called “farm states” voted against a big stack of subsidies for their constituents, including most of the Ag Committee members. I wonder what they will hear from their constituents during the August recess.

  • Maybe this is actually the oft-mentioned Republican re-branding.

    “We won’t do anything wrong because we won’t do anything.”

    On the other hand, after the stuff that they have voted for over the past six years I can see why they might be a bit gun shy.

  • He’s been called ‘asshole’ in the past, so give Rep. Don Young some credit for supporting the workplace disrimination bill. Even he couldn’t see why that would be a bad idea.

  • It’s human nature to band together in times of turmoil. It’s probably easier to keep the caucus together when the party’s in free-fall then when everything is hunky-dory.

  • If they prevent anything from passing (by voting against everything and forcing a filibuster) then they can claim that the Democratic leaders are getting nothing done, and should be voted out of office.

  • But they’re tough, that bunch, really tough. And when they go over the cliff, they’ll all go together …. (Chorus: “They’ll all go together when they go … ; thanks Tom Lehrer).

  • The shame is that we have to continue to tolerate them till their ship goes down. We have to just stand shaking our heads as they obstruct the government just to prove it doesn’t really work. Liars and hypocrites to the end. Can’t wait to get them out of the way so things will get done again. Go home so the adults can legislate!

  • It makes me wonder just what goes on at those Republican get-togethers, and who has the pictures.

  • No doubt the Republicans in Congress — just like the Attorney General, the FEMA head, those promoted in TV news — were picked and financially supported based on their loyalty above all else.

  • CB said: In the broader political context, all available evidence suggests the Republican Party in Washington is in freefall. […] [The Republicans are] on the wrong side of practically every policy debate.

    And unfortunately the media won’t remind anyone of that fact very often, and instead they’ll put the Bushie Shills on TV at every opportunity to tell us their oh-so-serious opinions.

  • This might actually be a sensible strategy for them. –Basilisc

    It might since at least their base will still approve of them. But given that the base is crumbling, this isn’t something that can continue forever.

  • Well, the Democrats are not good at taking advantage of such situations. If they were, we’d already be hearing far and wide about the Republican obstructionists in the Congress. Instead, we hear how nervous the Dems are in light of the veto power of the President. Shit, why can’t the party of the donkey get it together? Merely one of the reasons I have refrained from any affiliation with said party.

    I am conservative, but I believe in S-CHIP, proper rest for our fine men and women in uniform, and the rights of jacked employees to take their employers to court to settle any injustice. I know many of my conservative friends are also on board for these pieces of legislation, and yet the Republican contingent in Congress is dead set on preventing the majority from bringing good legislation to the American public. If the majority can’t translate this obstructionism into political gain, then my thoughts about them will be confirmed. -Kevo

  • Thanks to Boehner for proving that today’s Republican Party base are the sixth-generation traitor descendants of transported pig fornicators, the DNA base of southern whites.

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